Catholicosate of Armenia Major & Armenia Minor

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
842033182
IRS 990 coverage
2021–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2020, Form 990-N 2023
Location
Pioneertown, CA, USA
Phone
8183192320
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Religious Printing, Publishing
Affiliation
Christianity

Reported finances

Revenue
$159,681
Expenses
$115,628
Assets
$1,370,046
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

3 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Armen Melikian (COO)
  • Anush Melikian (Secretary)
  • Natalie Sergian (Treasurer)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

The Catholicosate of Armenia Major and Armenia Minor, a religious organization, is the legal entity of a new Armenian religion. It conducts its activities in countries and jurisdictions where Armenian communities live: California, the US in general, Armenia, and elsewhere, and operates the Baldasar Monastery. Via its publications unit, the Erzenka Publishing House, it is involved in preservation of the Western Armenian literary and linguistic heritage, an endangered language bordering extinction, designated as such by UNESCO, as without which our religion may not survive. The Catholicosate, via Erzenka Publishing House, is involved in research, publishing, manufacturing, distributing, and selling books for the stated purpose. It aims at the publication of mainly pre-Genocide, 19th century Western Armenian literary heritage, but mainly the Bibles and literature of our religion.

What it reported doing in 2024

Online publication of our 742 pages Bible in Western Armenian and Arabic--the Bible of Baldasar--translated into Arabic as Al-Qur'an Al-Armani (The Armenian Qor'an) after the completion of its creation and design in the previous years.

Operating model

Revenue model
Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 90
  • Accountability: 6
  • Sustainability: 82
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 85%; rating input score 85
  • Program expense ratio: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: Limited
  • Foreign activity oversight: Limited
  • Grant itemization coverage: Limited
  • Major donor itemization: Limited
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: Limited
  • Governance controls: 1 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 14
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
    • Whistleblower policy: Fail
    • Document-retention policy: Fail
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Fail
    • Audit committee oversight: Missing
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 27.6%; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 11.85; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 48.7% per year; rating input score 100; 95th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 1.9% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 23.4% per year; rating input score 100; 88th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 85% of revenue deployed · 100% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 1 of 7 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $116K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 3 people listed
  • Consistency: 41 of 41 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2021 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 6 not reported.